Town trio are a doubt for Stags clash

Mike Simmonds

Hatters trio Mark Tyler, Danny Green and Ryan Hall are all major doubts for the League Two trip to Mansfield this weekend.

Tyler (back) and Green (ankle ligaments) were both forced off in the opening 20 minutes of last Saturday’s goalless draw with Cambridge United.

Ryan Hall was then replaced in the second half too and on their availability, Luton boss Nathan Jones said: “We’re assessing them daily, they’re not massively serious ones, they’re ones that we will be able to make a decision on tomorrow morning, whether they travel or not.

“Ryan’s one that’s going to have to come through a few things. He hasn’t trained the first two days of the week and he’s going to have to come through and then we’ll assess him on Friday and hopefully we’ll have a positive one on him.

“It’s little bit frustrating really as we had to make three enforced changes during the game, which wasn’t ideal and from having a massive squad, it restricts our decisions now.

“We’ll wait until we get the update though, we won’t risk anyone, but if they come through everything then they’ll travel and be assessed from there.”

Young striker Jack Marriott should be fit though despite struggling in the final 10 minutes against Cambridge as Jones continued: “Jack put in a real shift on the weekend and a little bit of fatigue maybe crept in with him.

“He’s still young, in terms of games and experience at this level, he came through fine and trained all week.”

The likes of Nathan Doyle and Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu are in contention too, with Jones admitting he was particularly excited about the prospect of working with the latter after his struggle with injury this season.

He said: “I think that’s the thing that’s hampered him is the injuries. He’s a player we’re looking forward to working with, I’m quite excited to work with him and little by little I’ll get to know him and get to know his strengths and see what he can do for us, so I’m sure he’ll be a good player.

“Apart from ones we’ve previously mentioned, it’s a fully fit squad to choose from and it’s a big squad to choose from, so we’ll go there with good numbers.”

If Tyler doesn’t make it through his fitness test, Jones would have no problems with handing Elliot Justham only his third league start of the season.

He added: “Elliot came in and did fantastically well. He’s a keeper we believe in anyway, he’s had to be patient which is the message he got before I got here.